September 22, 2016

TAIWAN REVIEW
Anti-Communist victory in Japan
By Lee Wen-jer

Publication Date: October 1, 1970

Honorary President Ku Cheng-kang addresses opening ceremony of WACL 70. Seated at

far right is Juanita Castro, freedom-fighting sister of Fidel (File photo)

Leftists fail in their plot to disrupt conferences of WACL and APACL at

Kyoto and a rally of 20,000 freedom fighters in Tokyo
It was September 14, the evening after the closing of Expo 70 at Osaka. Two
thousand Japanese gathered at a band stand on a Kyoto hillside and braved an
hour-long downpour to launch WACL 70.
That same thunderstorm disrupted Osaka-Tokyo rail traffic for nearly three
hours and caused several blackouts in the Osaka-Kyoto area. But the WACL
eve gathering listened attentively to moving speeches and sang "Let's Join
Our Hands, Friends of the World." Judo wrestlers in white practice suits and
black belts stood on guard with arms folded and feet firmly planted.

Six days later, 20,000 equally determined people attended a live-hour WACL
World Rally at the Nippon Budokan Hall in a Tokyo park. This Sunday
afternoon event culminated 10 months of preparation. Most of the 20,000
arrived, lunch boxes in hand, before 9 a.m. They waited quietly while guards
outside checked and double-checked late-comers. Many rally workers had
arrived before dawn to watch over every minute detail.
In between the Kyoto and Osaka gatherings were the 4th and 16th annual
conferences of WACL and APACLWorld Anti-Communist League and
Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist Leaguewith an attendance of 231 persons
from 67 member and 29 observer units around the world. Themes of the
meetings were "Mobilizing the Forces of World Freedom" and "Promotion of
an Asian-Pacific Regional Security Organization."
The opening WACL ceremony drew a throng of 2,500 to the US$10 million
Kyoto International Conference Hall. Messages from nine presidents and
prime ministers were read. Speeches were heard simultaneous ly in four or
five languages through loudspeakers and earphones. Subsequently adopted
were 38 resolutions 27 by WACL and 11 by APACL denouncing
Communist atrocities and expressing concern over the fate of the 1,000
million persons enslaved behind the Iron Curtain. Additionally, the two
leagues released communiques totaling 43 paragraphs.
The World Youth Anti-Communist League, established only last December,
also was represented. Sixty youth delegates from 17 nations and organiza tions
held separate sessions and drafted resolutions which reinforced those of the
senior leagues.
Many details of the tightly scheduled conferences may have escaped the
attention of foreign delegates and observers But the image of the raindrenched men and women singing on that Kyoto hillside and the determined
faces of those attending the Tokyo rally are memories never to be forgotten.
That the WACL/APACL/WYACL meetings took place in Japan's ancient and
present-day capital cities, both known for rampant leftist activities, was in
itself significant. A battle was fought out in the midst of the pro-Communist
enemy and the victory was decisive: all the plans of the extremists to wreck
the anti-Communist conferences came to naught.
Most of the Japanese hosts, largely in their 20s and 30s, did not speak English
and those who did spoke brokenly. But veteran anti-Communist leaders from
abroad were moved and inspired by the dedication of the Japanese. Although
inexperienced in conducting international conferences, the young volunteers

of Japan's International Federation for Victory over Communism (IFVC)

made WACL 70 an event to be remembered longer than the Osaka fair.
Expo distinguished itself as the biggest, most expensive and most successful
exposition in history by attracting nearly 65 million persons in six months.
WACL 70 acquired superlatives for striking important new blows for man's
freedom.
IFVC"Kokusai Shokyo Rengo" in Japanesehas more than 50,000
members and some 3,000 full time volunteer fighters against Communism. In
a nationwide fund-raising campaign that began last April, the volunteers held
83 lectures and 651 study meetings, displayed 1,200,000 posters, handed out
4,600,000 copies of leaflets and collected 150 million yen (about
US$422,000) in addition to the signatures of 2 million persons pledging
active support to the anti-Communist movement. The money included
proceeds from the sale of junk collected in door-to-door calls. To cut
expenses, the young people often slept in the open. There was a constant
threat from the leftists. Clashes were frequent.
Assurance that the WACL meeting in September could be successful came on
May 11 when the WACL/ APACL Japan Chapter and IFVC brought together
6,000 volunteers at a National Rally for the Promotion of 4th WACL
Conference. Hundreds of baskets of flowers and messages of felicitation were
sent to that gathering at Tokyo's Fumonkan, the newly com pleted largest
music hall in Asia. Masajiro Kawajima, vice president of Japan's LiberalDemocratic Party, was there to read a congratulatory message from Eisaku
Sato, head of the majority party and prime minister.
The magnitude of the Japanese feat is emphasized by the fact that most IFVC
members had never heard of WACL or APACL before the conferences held in
Bangkok late last year decided to hold the 1970 meetings in Japan. The
Japanese were not present when APACL held its first conference at Chinhae,
Korea, in June of 1954. Japan's military history and postwar leftist tendencies
led some APACL founders to wonder whether the Japanese presence would
contribute to effectiveness of an Asian anti-Communist alliance. The league
charter adopted two years later at the 2nd APACL Conference stipulated that
general membership meetings be held annually in major Asian countries. But
Japan did not join APACL until the 6th conference in Taipei in 1960. The only
APACL meeting held in Japan in subsequent years was the 8th in 1962.
Japanese leaders who hosted the 1962 meeting subsequently gave their
attention to such other quasi-governmental organizations as the Asian
Parliamentarians' Union and the Sino-Japanese and South Korea Japan

Cooperation Committees. Emerging at the cabinet level was the Asian and
Pacific Council-ASPAC. These were excellent organizations but left the more
than 50 Japanese anti-Communist groups without ties to the world antiCommunist movement. Even when WACL was born in 1967 as an outgrowth
of APACL the majority of Japan's 100 million population remained
uninformed about anti-Communist progress in the world at large. The
Japanese press was busy reporting leftist student riots which compelled 140
universities to shut down for weeks or months.
In the three years after 1967, changes favorable to the anti-Communist cause
took place in Japan. Contributing factors were the progressive disunity of the
Japanese Communists and Socialists and the mounting public opposition to
the militant behavior of leftists.
The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) is also known as the Yoyogi sect
because of the name of the Tokyo district where its headquarters is located.
JCP's ideological shifts, apparently undertaken to attract followers, resulted in
a rift with Moscow in March of 1964 and with Peiping exactly two years
later. At its 11th National Congress in July of this year, JCP adopted a
seemingly mild platform repudiating both revolution by violence and the
dictatorship of the proletariat and at the same time supporting freedom and
parliamentary democracy. This was merely a gesture in the quest for
members. The JCP, which is the second largest Communist party in the free
world (next to that of Italy) with 300,000 members, would resort to violence
as quickly as any other Communist party if conditions warranted.
The Japan Socialist Party (JSP) is a grotesque collection of left-wing MarxistLeninists and right-wing democratic socialists. As the main leadership is
composed of leftists, the party is essentially Communist. Evidence seems to
indicate that JSP has been more loyal to Communist doctrine than the Yoyogi
Reds.
Other Japanese Communists are loosely classified as the anti-Yoyogi sect.
This category includes the Zengakuren (Federation of University Student
Organizations) which has been mainly responsible for Japan's campus
turmoil. There are anarchists and radical liberals, too, but the majority of antiYoyogis are extreme Marxist-Leninists who openly advocate violence. JSP
supported this unpopular group as an anti-JCP tactic in the 1970 elections and
lost a number of parliamentary seats.
Considering that Japan that has been constantly exposed to leftist rallies and
violence in recent years, the emergence of the International Federation for
Victory over Communism was not without difficulty. IFVC founders decided

that mere opposition to the Communists would not be enough. They chose the
word "victory" instead of "anti" because they hoped their organization would
be more powerful than other anti-Communist groups. They are aware that to
oppose Communists is not enough; the ideology must be defeated and
eradicated.
IFVC's counterattack against Communism is uniquely religious. The
federation emphasizes that military, political and economic cooperation
among free nations is necessary but suggests that the joining of hearts is more
crucial. Books written for IFVC followers speak of unity among men who
love freedom, truth, beauty and goodness, of inspiring anti-Communist
warriors to die for their "holy purpose" and of ways to reform the
Communists.

Japanese youth are taking their anti-Communist crusade to the people. Their slogans
include "Communism Is Wrong," Let's Form a United Front for Victory over Com munism"
and "Denounce Red Aggression" (File photo)

"Communism Is Wrong" is the major slogan. Almost every IFVC lecture

opens with this statement. In sharp contrast to the arrogant hippie-type Com munist and Socialist campaigners the Japanese are accustomed to, the IFVC
workers are clean, neat and full of evangelistic fervor. Dedicated preachers
they truly are. Until the day of final victory over Communism, smoking and
drinking will be taboo for IFVC members. The personal sacrifice, they say, is
more than compensated for in the rewards of working for the happiness and
well-being of mankind.
This devotion to an ideal comes easily to the Japanese, who renounced
feudalism and militarism only recently and who do not yet wholly understand

individual liberty and similar Western values. Japanese are still reared in an
atmosphere of obedience.
The politico-religious dedication to victory over Communism was introduced
to Japan by Koreans about a decade ago and perfected by the Society for the
Study of Anti-Communist Theories sponsored by the Christian Unification
Church of Japan. When IFVC was established in the spring of 1968 following
a number of seminars and conferences, Osami Kuboki, the head of the church,
became federation president.
Kuboki, now 39, is the son of a Japanese bank clerk and was born in
northeastern China. He was a seventh-grader in Peiping when World War II
ended. Returning to Japan in the spring of 1946, Kuboki was appalled by the
coolness of people's hearts. As he continued his schooling, he came to see that
peace and happiness could be brought about only through the perfection of
human nature. Following graduation from Tokyo's Keio University, Kuboki
formulated his theory of unification through value, belief, love and spiritual
power.
He went to Bangkok in 1969 as a member of the Japanese delegation to the
3rd WACL Conference. Already a determined anti-Communist, he was
convinced that his religious ideals could not be realized without the
destruction of Communism. He proposed that Japan host the 4th WACL
Conference so that the masses of his countrymen, ignorant of the serious ness
of Communist threats, could be awakened to join in the free world struggle
against tyranny and aggression.
The Japan Chapter of WACL and APACL is the international department of
the Free Asia Association established in 1955 by Dr. Tetsuzo Watanabe anti
other distinguished party and civic leaders. This chapter publishes a monthly
periodical and has worked for the outlawing of the Communist party in Japan.
But the strength of the chapter was not sufficient to sponsor anti-Communist
meetings of worldwide scope.
As it turned out, IFVC's contribution was so large that Kuboki was chosen
chairman of the WACL/APACL Councils and presided over the league
conferences in Kyoto. He also was chairman of the WACL World Rally
Executive Committee.
President of the committee was Ryoichi Sasakawa, who heads national
foundations and associations promoting shipbuilding, maritime science, civil
aviation, veterans' welfare, Japan's traditional arts and the karate skills of
self-defense. Sasakawa is said to be over 70 years old but does not look it. He

is a karate expert with the highest rank of 10th dan. Spectators cheered his
demonstration at the Kyoto dinner party he gave for WACL/APACL
delegates. He then introduced some 30 members of his Federation of AllJapan Karate-do Organizations. Their half-hour demonstration of bodybuilding methods, karate chops and self-defense skills was an eye-opener for
foreign guests. Piles of thick roof tiles were broken one after another with
different parts of bodyfist, forearm, elbow, foot and head. Sasakawa said
his federation has 3 million karate wrestlers ready to oppose the Communists.
Assisting Sasakawa's executive committee was the WACL World Rally
Promotion Committee headed by Nobusuke Kishi, former prime minister of
Japan and still active as a member of the House of Representatives. Under
Kishi were 18 advisers and 77 committee members, all of them nationally
known figures from political, industrial, business, educational, cultural and
other fields. A list of their names and those of other promoters filled a 93page book. Listed as promoters and co-sponsors of the WACL World Rally
were 101 organizations, half of them in the religious field.
As the rally opened, the master of ceremonies presented messages received
from 30 overseas sources and more than 400 Japanese organizations and
individuals. None of the 20,000 participants that packed Budokan Hall was
there for selfish reasons. Each had paid his own transportation and other
expenses.
Sasakawa addressed the gathering, then remained on his feet for nearly five
hours as one speaker after another went to the rostrum.
No fewer than half a million words in verbal or printed form were presented
to the participants in the week-long WACL 70. The following excerpts total
less than 1,000 words but give some idea of what WACL 70 was all about:
Prime Minister John Gorton of Australia (message): "Australia and Japan
have a common interest in countering Communist expansion."
President Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China (message): "Courage
and dedicated service will be needed as we move along the road toward
victory. I am confident that millions of men of goodwill will be marching
with WACL."
Prime Minister George Papadopoulos of Greece (message): "Today more
than ever peoples need to struggle and undertake serious efforts in order that
mankind may achieve progress and prosperity in peace."

President Park Chung Hee of the Republic of Korea (message): "We know
through our bitter experiences that their (Communists') peace offensive aims
only at slackening and ultimately disintegrating the free world. Let us pledge
anew to make victory ours."
President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines (message): "I am
convinced that free peoples everywhere can successfully vanquish
Communism only through the full exercise of democratic alternatives and
through the improvement of economic and social conditions."
Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn of Thailand (message): "Where naked
lies and deceit fail to produce results, it (the international Communist move ment) normally recourses to threat and the use of force to subdue resistance."
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew of the United States (message): "Your
theme, 'Mobilizing the Forces of World Freedom,' is indeed very timely and
appropriate today and will continue to be of great significance for years to
come."
President Nguyen Van Thieu of the Republic of Vietnam (message): "The
Japan Chapter (of WACL and APACL) has successfully implemented a moral
rearmament of the Japanese youths to counter Communist influences."
Prime Minister Eisaku Sato of Japan in his capacity as president of the
Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan (message): "The most important problem
in the 1970s is to assure eternal peace of the world and to establish a truly
wealthy human society."
Secretary-General Jesus Vargas of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
(message): "It is well that the anti-Communist movement is global in scope
and unwavering in character. This is consonant with the well-recognized
dictum that the Communist threat of peace and freedom anywhere in the
world imperils peace and freedom everywhere else."
WACL Council Chairman Osami Kuboki of Japan (speech): "My country
has often been criticized as being 'an economic animal.' But the Japanese
youths have now been awakened from their long winter sleep to welcome the
spring and to put forth their young green leaves of national-scale antiCommunist activities. "
WACL Honorary President Ku Cheng-kang of China (speech): "The United
States must not speak or act in any way to dampen the fighting spirit of its
friends and benefit the enemies. Threatened by Communist aggressors, Asians

must help each other, hit back together and establish a strong unity of
deterrent forces."
Okinori Kaya, former finance minister of Japan (speech): "Liberalism and
capitalism are not without faults, but it is not right to choose Communism just
because of these faults. Japan is like a virgin who does not know the danger
of Communism. This can make the nation an easy prey."
WACL Secretary-General Jose Ma. Hernandez (report): "International
Communism is a world body. It requires another world body to fight it.
WACL is that body."
Dr. Whang Sung Soo of Korea (report): "The Communists have shown that
they are wolves in the disguise of sheep. Our activities must now advance
from mere protection of freedom to positive expansion of freedom."
Mme. Suzanne Labin of France (report): "In the time of Hitler and Stalin,
the freedom or slavery of mankind was decided in Europe. Today it is decided
in Asia. Because freedom is indivisible: should it die in Saigon or in Tokyo, it
will die in Paris and Washington."
Stefan J. Possony of the American Council for World Freedom (report):
"The United States is the main bastion of global freedom. The principal
defense responsibility of the United States is with the U.S. itself."
Miss Juanita Castro, younger sister of Fidel Castro, who has been living in
Miami since defecting from Cuba in 1964 (speech): "The Communists are
traitors to their homelands. The Communists arc fanatic followers of an
ideology that rejects and proscribes every noble human feeling. The
Communists want to enslave mankind by imposing Marxism-Lenin ism, a
system that is nothing more than a totalitarian dictatorship that sustains itself
in power by means of military force, terror, repression and mass murder."
Dr. Pham Huy Quat, former prime minister of Vietnam (speech): "The free
world must take advantage of the Moscow-Peiping conflict and take positive
steps against Communist aggressors in spite of America's withdrawal policy."
Ryoichi Sasakawa, president of the WACL World Rally Executive
Committee (speech): "Communism is a kind of germ and Communists are
germ-carriers. We should cure the patients of their disease. I understand a
group of radical leftists have sneaked into this hall. To them I gladly offer my
therapy. If the patients won't listen, my treatment can be rough."

Senator Strom Thurmond of the United States (speech): "Japan is presently

spending only less than one per cent of its gross national product on self defense. But Japan's economic development cannot continue unless its free
neighbors share in the development, support it and in turn are supported in the
defense of the common interest."
As the communique of the 4th WACL Conference pointed out, searching
examination of the many phases of the world situation had produced the
following unanimous observations:
1. Confrontation is by no means ended. Communist forces, unless they are
wiped out completely, will never give up their insidious attempts to enslave
the whole of mankind.
2. Peace is what all peoples long for. But freedom is just as important a goal.
WACL must continue to oppose peace through appeasement at the cost of
freedom, for peace gained through compromise and capitulation cannot
endure.
3. Free nations must recognize the futility of non-alignment, be under no
delusion that national unification may be attained through negotiations and
desist from flirtations with the Communists.
As further elaboration of the main conference theme, important resolutions of
the WACL Conference specifically called for:
1. Unification of the masses of all countries in joint efforts for the victory of
freedom.
2. Rising of young people as a main force against Communist enslavement
and for participation in the fight to protect freedom.
3. Smashing of all Communist attempts at infiltration and subversion.
4. Victorious resolution of the crisis in Southeast Asia, preserving the
freedom and independence of the Republic of Vietnam and of Laos and
Cambodia, and rejection of any suggestion of coalition governments in that
area.
5. Appeal to the United States to implement fully the constructive side of its
new Asian policy.
6. Promotion of peace in the Middle East and a heightened vigilance against
Communist Chinese attempts to incite new wars in that area.

7. Support for the efforts of the Latin American nations against Communism
and Castroism.
8. Whole-hearted participation of the African nations in the fight for freedom
and against Communist tyranny.
9. Encouragement of freedom movements among the enslaved peoples of
Eastern Europe, their struggles for national independence and selfdetermination, and revolutions by the peoples enslaved in the Soviet Russian
empire. (Included are such liberation movements as those in the Ukraine,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkestan, Armenia, North Caucasia, Byelorussia,
Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Rumania and Croatia.)
10. Call for support of the Republic of China's political offensive against the
Chinese Communists, and concrete measures to liberate the oppressed masses
on the Chinese mainland, as well as implacable opposition to U.N., admission
of the Peiping regime.
11. Call for support of the Republic of Korea's unification program for Korea,
and liberation of the enslaved people of North Korea in accordance with U.N.
resolutions. "
12. Establishment of regional security organizations to prevent further
Communist aggression.
13. Mobilization of freedom forces and the establishment of a global antiCommunist united front.
Other important business of WACL included:
Amendment of the league charter to give life-long tenure to the honorary
presidency of WACL, a post held by Dr., Ku Cheng-kang of China since the
league's 1968 conference in Saigon.
Amendment of the charter to facilitate expansion of the WACL Executive
Board from 9 to 13 members so as to include representatives of youths,
enslaved peoples and new regions. To be represented on the board for the next
three years are the Republics of China and, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the
Philippines, Thailand, North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Middle
East, WYACL and Captive Nations of Europe.
Decision to hold the 5th WACL Conference in Manila, in July of 1971.
As subsequently decided, the 17th conference of APACL will take place in
Manila immediately after the WACL meeting. This will be in keeping with the

solidarity and ideological conformity of the two international anti-Communist

organizations.
The APACL Conference in Kyoto wrote these passages into its communique:
"As an important regional body and component of WACL, this Asian league
solemnly resolved to accept unreservedly all the resolutions adopted at the
4th WACL Conference and endeavor unremittingly for their first-priority
execution and fulfillment....
"Further developments in this region will strikingly influence the rest of the
world. Evidence today points to an impending major change for the whole of
Asia, and the emergence of a new situation favorable to the free world or the
worsening of the present, critical condition depends fully on the free nations'
efforts toward a system of collective defense against Communism.
"For these reasons, the APACL Conference decided to call upon free Asian
government leaders to work for the immediate convocation of an Asian Secu rity Conference so that all the nations in the region can join forces for the
strenuous task of defending their own freedom and security and for the early
establishment of an Asian and Pacific Regional Security Organization. The
conference earnestly hopes that the Asian and Pacific Council can actively
promote this plan, expand its own scope of operation and persuade all the
concerned nations to join the formation of free Asian defense.... "
The need of a regional security organization for Asia and the Pacific has been
recognized for years. When APACL met in Saigon in 1968, appeals were
made for such a defense arrangement. This was repeated in Bangkok last
December and again at Kyoto.
No one aware of the danger of Communism would doubt the wisdom of the
APACL calls. But an immediate realization of the plan presents difficulties.
For example, most people believe that APSO, as the proposed Asian and
Pacific security organization might be called, could not be effective without
Japan's participation. There is some opposition to this idea for fear that the
Japanese may return to the militarism of the Pacific War days.
This fear may be overcome. The large majority of Japanese feel that their
nation will never again invade or attempt to dominate other countries. There
arc also capitulationist Japanese who want peace at any price, optimists who
think Japan can stay aloof from Communist aggressions in neighboring
countries and leftists who want the communization of Japan. For Japan to

take part in a military alliance like ASPO, the nation's constitution would
have to be amended. This is possible but not easy.
Security arrangements in the Asian and Pacific region presently include
ANZUS, a 1951 pact involving Australia, New Zealand and the United States,
and SEATO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. Additionally the United
States has individual treaties with the Republic of China, Republic of Korea,
Japan, Philippines and other countries.
Nations normally considered as possible members of APSO and pertinent data
(A) population in millions, (B) present internal Communist threat and (C)
present threat of Communist conquest-are as follows:
Country
Cambodia
Rep.
of
China
Indonesia
Japan
Rep.
of
Korea
Laos
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Rep.
of
Vietnam
United
States
Australia
New
Zealand

B
7
14

115
105
31
3
11
36
2
34

yes
no
yes
slight
no
yes
yes
yes
slight
slight

17
205
12

yes
slight

slight
no

C
yes
slight
no
no
slight
yes
no
no
no
yes
yes
no
no
no

Population of the 14 nations totals nearly 600 million, including 375 million
in Asian countries and 220 in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
The overall productivity is much larger than that of Communist Asia and the
capacity for the scientific use of resources, of communication and
organization is infinitely greater.
However, in the words of Douglas Darby, an Australian and a member of the
Parliament of New South Wales since 1945, the Asian APSO nations have not
yet recognized that they all face the same problem and should have a joint
purpose.

September 27 issue of the Kokusai Shokyo Shinbun, the organ of Ja pan's International
Federation for Victory Over Communism, Head line: "Win a Triumph in the 1970s" (File
photo)

Writing in the September issue of Asian Outlook, a publication of the

WACL/APACL China Chapter, Darby warned: "With so much to lose and so
much to gain, they (the Asian APSO nations) must con centrate upon a
practical approach and mutual understanding. Nevertheless, a premature
attempt may well result in failure. Those still suspicious of their neighbors
need the healing forces of time and mutual respect."
Despite the obstacles that still must be surmounted, free Asians can be
optimistic about a united anti-Communist vista for the region. This hope was
enhanced in Japan during WACL 70 and is being strengthened further
throughout the world.
Part of the new energy is coming from the music boxes that the antiCommunist leaders took home as gifts from their Japanese hosts. The tune is
that of WACL. Records of the song in both Japanese and English have been
made available so that others may learn and sing together. Owners of the
music boxes will cherish memories of a significant week in Japan. The
seedlings they and their new Japanese friends planted together will grow as
their song"Let's Join Our Hands, Friends of the World"spreads far and
wide.